Inside the Phillies with MLB.com beat writer Todd Zolecki

The Phillies Love Broxton

Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton is 2-2 with a 9.82 ERA and one save in four opportunities against the Phillies from the moment Matt Stairs‘ home run landed deep in the right-field bleachers at Dodger Stadium in Game 4 of the 2008 NLCS to the moment teammates mobbed Carlos Ruiz near second base last night at Citizens Bank Park.

(In between Stairs and Ruiz, Jimmy Rollins had a pretty big hit in Game 4 of the 2009 NLCS.)

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That is one of the most amazing comebacks I have seen – especially given the lineup the Phils are throwing out there. Valdez’s hit in the 8th just adds to the big hits he’s had for the team this year, anybody giving Rubes credit for signing him?

This game got me thinking about the Phils staging a similar comeback years ago while playing in L.A. The Dodgers were pounding the Phils that day, and I vividly remember fat Valenzuela pinch hitting late in the game and laughing. The Dodgers used all position players which came back to back them when the Phils stormed back to take the lead in the top of the ninth.

On Aug. 21, 1990, Tommy Lasorda’s Dodgers had an 11-1 lead at home in the eighth when the Phillies scored what seemed like two innocent runs . Then the Phils, sparked by a three-run homer from John Kruk , scored nine in the ninth, held the Dodgers to win 12-11. Surprisingly, Broxton did not pitch the 9th that day.

An old boss of mine who happened to be pretty good friends with Mike Scosia told him that Lasorda abandoned the team after the eighth inning and went back into the clubhouse. Thinking his Dodgers had the game wrapped up, Lasorda took off his shirt and started pigging out at the team buffet spread. As he was shoveling tons of food into his mouth, he had no idea what was going on out on the field until a clubhouse attendent ran frantically into the room and told Lasorda that the Dodgers were now losing. Lasorda jumped up, mouth stuffed with lasagna, and screamed,”Jesus Christ, are you ******* kidding me ?!”. He quickly put his Dodger shirt back on and ran back to the Dodger dugout, while still chewing on food, but it was too late.

Serves him right. ***** *******. Let us not forget the fact he has NO sense of humor. Remember….he DID punch the Phanatic.

The attached link is a screen shot of Jonathan Broxton’s Wikipedia page after last night’s game. It didn’t last very long and I don’t know if it was done by a phan or an angry Dodgers fan. But it is quite true…..

That was an amazing comeback victory. There were too many heroes to single out one player, but I happen to think that the 9-pitch-AB by Sweeney was the key moment in the game. During that At-Bat, Broxton threw three perfect, nasty pitches that Sweeney managed to foul off. I think if Sweeney had swung at and missed one of those pitches, Broxton would have closed out the game for the Dodgers. What a pick up by RUBEN !!

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